About Shane Pruitt

My defining moment at Oglethorpe was the day I booked my first trip abroad with Heidi Blackwell ’99, back in March 1999. Heidi and I started out as friends in elementary school, and although we didn’t attend the same high school we each separately decided to matriculate to Oglethorpe. Spurred on by a big sale from British Airways, we booked a seven night trip to England following Heidi’s graduation. Although we did the trip on a true student’s shoestring budget, we had a wonderful time together, and that fantastic week opened me up to new cultures and experiences which has led to an addiction to travel. Since then, I’ve visited 23 countries ranging from nearby Caribbean islands to many countries in Europe to exotic destinations such as Australia, Vanuatu and Russia. Since our initial excursion abroad, Heidi and I have remained close friends and have been fortunate enough to travel on two additional trips together, to Italy and Ireland and Wales. My OU education has allowed me to appreciate art, architecture, music and food in every place I’ve explored, and has given me the ability to keep an open mind, enjoy and seek understanding of different cultures around the world. The big question since my defining moment has been and will continue to be: where to next?

I got my BS in Math and Science in 1959, and taught school for a year where I went to elementary school. Afterwards, I went back to OU and got my T4 teachers certificate and taught a second year in high school Biology, Chemistry and Physics in Pickens County, GA where I incidentally finished high school, myself. I then went to work for Lockheed at the Nuclear Lab near Dawsonville in North, GA where I, after some time, transferred to the main plant in Marietta and became a Senior Aeromechanics Engineer. In 1971, I quit as a protest to the SST and Viet Nam War effort and started a new Anesthesiology program at Emory where I got my MS in 1973. I subsequently went on to get my MD in 1997. I did my residency in Anesthesiology at Emory and stayed there–becoming the Chief of Pediatric Anesthesia at Grady before I left and wound up at the Medical Center in Johnson City, TN. I loved my time and the Core at OU and still think it is ideal in many ways. I am now retired in Macon, GA where my daughter is head soccer coach at Wesleyan College.

There are too many special moments to list here but I will say that having written an article for the Stormy Petrel was my first foray into the writing world. After I graduated in 1970, I entered our family business (David David Gallery) and went on to write an article about an artist we represented, (Martha Walter) which was published in The American Art review in 1978. I decided then that I needed to share the inner workings of the art market and wrote, “Collecting And Care of Fine Art” which was published by Crown, NY in 1981 and will be published by Skyhorse Publishing NY in the fall or winter of 2015 as an updated, revised edition. My second book, which is my heart, is “Bader Field; How my family Survived Suicide” (Nightengale Press, 2008-2015 POD). It is a non fiction family saga of how our idyllic 1960’s American family was nearly shattered by the suicide of one of my older brothers, (I was 16; he was 22) and how we struggled to claw our way back to life. I have been using the book as a means of reaching out to raise awareness to the devastation this horrific act leaves in its wake upon the surviving family members and friends. Regularly doing television, radio and journal interviews for years, I am now working toward getting the book into every school system in America and having a film made which would have a tremendous positive impact and save lives. My 3rd (newest ) book “Waking Dreams; The Subtle Reality” (Motivational Press, July 2015) is a collection of episodes of synchronicity that I have experienced that I wanted to share. These signs and messages from The Universe are gifts that when acknowledged, give assurance that we are not alone and allow us to focus on the present instead of being mired in fear of the future.